america this morning. >> stay with us for "good morning america." have a great thursday. >> live and in hd, this is "good morning washington," on your side. >> straight ahead a busy night for emergency crews. they responded to several crashes involving pedestrians including hit-and-run crash. good morning, washington. it's thursday, october 18. i am cynne simpson. >> i am steve chenevey. we want to get straight to meteorologist jacqui jeras. >> we are at least 5 degrees warmer than this time yesterday. so that's good news. let's talk about the weather headlines. we will have a sunny start today, with clouds increasing throughout the day. thunderstorms developing late. a few storms could be strong to severe late tonight. let's take a look at

temperatures. 56 at reagan national, 52 at dulles, 41 in frederick. your express forecast, mostly sunny and 56 at 9:00. partly cloudy and 66 by noon. 5:00, partly sunny with a few thunderstorms developing by the drive home. let's check on traffic with steve. >> good morning. an accident overnight was in alexandria at the bottom of the screen and huntington avenue, south of the beltway. the road is open, but there's still some activity heading down from old town alexandria. you will see the activity, but it looks like you can get by in both directions. the beltway near university boulevard in silver spring, looks pretty good. some overnight roadwork, but if you stay to the right, no delays

whatsoever. no problems on 95 northbound or southbound. there is overnight work in the clearing stages on both sides especially on the virginia side. no significant delays or other problems around the beltway. back to you. >> thank you. pedestrians struck by a vehicle in fairfax county. >> this happened before 2:00 this morning at richmond highway and huntington avenue. the victim was taken to the hospital. we don't know the condition. the driver remained on the scene. the crash is under investigation. d.c. police investigating a shooting before 12:30 this morning in the 1700 block of benning road in northeast. the victim was taken to hospital with life-threatening injuries. we don't know what led to the shooting. we are following the rest of a man from bangladesh accused of trying to blow up the federal reserve building in new york city. >> the suspect discussed

baltimore also as a possible target before selling on new york city. now the latest from jay korff. >> the 21-year-old entered the country and to attend university. instead refocused its attention on destruction. in a sophisticated sting operation, undercover agents determined he wanted to attack and kill a high-ranking government official and wanted to blow up the new york stock exchange. but with tight security, he switched to the federal reserve building. he knew it would result in a large number of civilian casualties including women and children but still wanted to proceed. he wanted to shake the whole country to make us one step closer to running the whole world. court records show wednesday want he thought that he was remotely detonating went thousand pounds of explosives in a van parked near the federal reserve. after months of planning, no one was in danger and the explosives

were inert. >> it is still a coveted target by terrorists. this reaffirms that. >> he has connections to al qaeda and was arrested, charged and is being held without bond. in washington, security appears tighter than usual at the federal reserve. >> it's frightening that people would attempt to do that. i'm glad our government and our security was able to get them. >> he was hoping the attack would lead to the postponement of the presidential election can than he was more than willing to die in the attack but preferred remote destination so he could return home to his family and then eventually come back to conduct more attacks. in future court proceedings we will likely learned that social media used by investigators, in particular facebook, played a role in the investigation. decor

for reporting, abc 7 news. >> the funeral services will be held for a baltimore woman and four children all killed in a row house fire that broke out a week ago in ron paul on denwood avenue. nancy was killed along with three grandchildren and a great- grandson. the children ranged in age from one to 7. the wake will be at 10:00 this morning at mount pleasant in baltimore beginning at 11:00 the funeral beginning at 11:00. >> there's an announcement of the winter temperature and precipitation outlook. there will also discuss how the weather will have an impact on the drought that has been affecting much of the country. 2 million people will take time today to make sure they are ready for an earthquake. >> residents of maryland d.c., virginia, and other states

taking part. it is at 10:18 a.m. some local schools will participate in the drill. drop cover, and hold on. this comes after the first anniversary of the magnitude 5.8 quake on the east coast. >> back to normal on 270 after an four-vehicle spill in bethesda. a tractor-trailer started leaking fuel and that led to some lanes being shut down nearly three hours during the cleanup. >> in business news, d.c. college students are deep in debt. >> american airlines is in hiring mode. ellen braitman joins us from bloomberg in new york. >> good morning. market's pretty quiet this morning. earnings season in full swing. we will get a corporate report card on chipotle, google,

microsoft, verizon, southwest today. american airlines is looking to hire 1500 flight attendants. surprising because the company is trying to trim costs. it has not hired flight attendants in over a decade. the current attendance had accepted a voluntary buyout. gallaudet continue to be on the rise -- college debt continues to be on the rise. students are $26,000 in debt on average. that's a 5% jump from the prior year. even worse in d.c., they owe $28,000. more women raising the glass ceiling. i will tell you what that number is and with nike dropping lance armstrong, he stands to lose millions.

ellen braitman reporting. >> thank you. it's 53 degrees outside. >> the latest on the presidential race. how president

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>> -year-olds is jacqui jeras in

the belfort furniture weather center. temperature is still cool, but we are warmer than this time yesterday. it is 13 degrees warmer in gaithersburg and dulles. take a look at the temperatures. no 30's. 46 in winchester, 43 in culpeper, 57 in quantico. 56 at reagan national. morning sunshine giving way to increasing clouds this afternoon. showers and thunderstorms developing by this evening high temperature between 68 and 73. let's hope traffic is doing ok. here is steve hershorn. >> not bad so far. 395 at king street, moving smoothly. looks nice from springfield to the 14th street bridge. hov lanes are open all the way from dumphries into springfield and on to 395 up to the 14th

street bridge and passed the pentagon. 95 in virginia late-day clearing construction after route 7 dean at falmouth. still very slow southbound on 95 to fredericksburg. northbound, everything is open. 270 near 109, looks good so far from frederick county into montgomery county. it's a little foggy, but everything is moving smoothly. back to you. >> thank you. >> looks like we are following a developing story from silver spring. investigators are searching for the driver responsible for hit- and-run. >> newschopper 7 over the scene on university boulevard last night. a woman had been crossing the street not in the crosswalk when a pickup truck hit her and drove

away. she is suffering non-life- threatening injuries. several cars collided while trying to avoid striking the woman. >> newschopper 7 over a situation in college park on route 1. a woman in critical condition after being struck by a car around 9:30 last night near university boulevard. the driver suspected of hitting the woman did stay at the scene. the circumstances that led to the accident still are not clear. >> we are looking at about 53 degrees. warmer than yesterday. >> we told you about a boy from new york who had a music video asking guys to pull up their pants. >> organizers are not using the video this time

>> getting some information on a deadly landslide in perot. -- peru. >> it happened late last night in northeast peru in san ma rtin. officials have found 11 bodies in the rubble, most of them young children. 10 other people unaccounted for. there was heavy rain in the area last night which caused a massive mudslide and that caused a lot of trees and rocks to slide down the mountain homes. that's where the majority of the victims have been found. humanitarian aid from the government is on the way to the scene. they will be looking for even more bodies. there is a lot of flooding so they are waiting for a lot of the water to subside before they are able to look for even more victims. following this story and we will

bring you any updates later in the newscast and online at wjla.com. back to you. >> thank you. less than to three weeks until the election. the presidential nominees remain on the campaign trail trying to persuade undecided voters. president obama will appear in new hampshire and then in new york to tape an appearance with john stuart. mitt romney will speak at a foundation dinner in the big apple. we will get more details on their schedule from tahman bradley. >> with less than three weeks until election day, the presidential contenders have intensified their efforts to court and decided women voters. >> my mom was a single mom. >> a single mom doesn't know whether they will be able tfootto put food on the table. >> mitt romney has narrowed the gap. mr. obama yesterday touted the equal pay measures signed into law and attacked his republican rival for not supporting it. >> a young woman graduates and

should get equal pay for equal work. that should be a simple question to answer. when governor romney was asked about it his campaign said we will get back to you. >> romney says women have suffered under president obama and he will do more to help them. >> there are 3.6 million more women in poverty today than when the president took office. this president has failed american women. >> under fire from democrats but for pledging to end planned parenthood, he's taking to the airways. >> romney does not oppose contraception. he thinks abortion should be an option in the case of rape, incest, or to save a mother's life. >> hedemocrats think romney gave them an opportunity and tuesday

night when he mentioned that his staff gave him binders full of women. it was the number-one item on google yesterday. >> president obama planning an election night rally in chicago. a small event in grant park attracted more than 200,000 people at his first election. romney will have his event in boston. >> democrat tim kaine and republican george allen squaring off at virginia tech in blacksburg. the two hoped to succeed incumbent democrat jim webb. polls show a very tight race between them. >> the county taking part in the national lights after-school day celebration at the johns hopkins campus and roberto clemente middle school in germantown to pay attention to the importance of safe, quality after-school programs for children.

>> organizers with the the program in prince george's county on a mission to get teenagers to pull up their pants. >> what is the solution? it is to collect belts. >> on most days, his pants are down well below his waist. >> sometimes my pants do drop to the ground and i just pull them up. sometimes it happens. i'm so busy and not paying attention. >> he's like many young people who wear their pants lower than most. would like to most it >> we don't want to see that. it's underwear. >> community activists in prince george's county have a plan to counter this. the take charge project is holding a belt drive collecting used belts at 15 drop boxes all across the county. >> 0 many eyesores we see in our community -- so many eyesores.

one day we hope these young men will be future leaders. leaders don't walk around with their pants hanging down. >> they will be given out to young men at school and it's in the hopes they will wear them perhaps if they go on job interviews. >> it's awesome. >> organizers don't know how many they of collected so far. the move has strong support. >> what is the purpose of group 8 -- of droopy pants? >> abc 7 news, kendis gibson. >> it's 53 degrees. >> signs the holiday season is around the corner. a date has been announced for the national christmas tree

>> good morning. i meteorologist jacqui jeras. a great start this morning, but things will change by this afternoon with a chance of showers and thunderstorms. there's a strong cold front off to our west. it's already bringing storms to the ohio valley and the tennessee valley. the storm system in the deep south produced a tornado in mississippi that injured a few people. the storms could be a little strong when they arrive tonight but we don't expect widespread

severe weather. we have a south wind ahead of the system, 56 degrees at reagan national 52 at dulles, 46 in winchester, 41 in frederick. mostly sunny and 56 at 9:00, barlett cloudy and 66 at noon. at 5:00, the thunderstorms will begin, 71 degrees. it is the great shakeout, where you get prepared for earthquakes. there are interesting facts on twitter today. i will also put this on my facebook page. that's the latest on the weather. now to steve hershorn with traffic. >> a look at springfield moving pretty well on 95 northbound. all lanes moving to springfield without incident. southbound 95 the, the construction zone near fredericksburg, just before route 3 at the rappahannock river, the road work was slowing down. northbound, everything is open.

connecticut avenue 1 the beltway, moving smoothly. no accidents or incidents. no problems on the beltway. back to you. >> thank you. 4:57 and everyone might want to mark their calendars. date has been announced for the national christmas tree lighting ceremony. >> thursday, december 6. free tickets will be awarded through an on-line lottery which opens at 10:00 a.m. thursday, october 25. that's a week from today. if you would like to learn how to enter, we have the information on our website wjla.com. >> for clock 57, 53 degrees. >> a--